Ornamental yew bending

[Blaflair2]

So I have a Japanese yew stave almost all roughed out. Wanna recurve it and gotta do a little string alignment. I plan on steaming the recurves but dunno how to approach the alignment. I was thinking of trying it all in one wack. Well one limb at a time of corse. It's a pretty sweet looking piece of wood. Well see how it goes. It was a branch about 3" in diameter. Cut in October last year. Kept inside all winter with the wood stove going and then left in the shop from March till now, reduced it in size and started roughing out the bow. Gonna let it set a little while before I start bending just to be sure it's seasoned. Thanks

[Del the cat]

Hi with steam, I find there is some bounce back, but almost none with dry heat...
There's a lot of luck involved, sometimes I've had to steam and dry heat a good few times to get the result, other times it's one hit and done.
Del

[Blaflair2]

Yeah I figured I'd have to do some correcting of the corrections. If that makes sense lol. I'm gonna grab some pix once the baby falls asleep

[bubby]

I like to get it bending good, 18-20" that way there aren't too many suprizes

[Benedikt]

I prever bending with steam, with dry heat the wood can#t be bend as far as with steam.
To serv it from bouncing back, you can glue on a wooden strip or a piece of horn on the belly, what looks very nice to me
Regards,
Benedikt